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Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Spaghetti with Shaved Asparagus, Brown Butter and Toasted Walnuts

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Within the confines of my home this is still called ABC pasta. The first time I made the dish, I used asparagus, brown butter and capellini, and, while the ingredients have changed a bit, the name stuck. This is a fast and easy dish to execute. It has a spare elegance and makes a lovely, light meal that is worthy of family and friends. It's also a great way to use some of the asparagus that floods markets at this time of year. While you'll want to use thick spears to make this, it will be necessary to sacrifice the first strip you shave from the top and each side of the asparagus spears. The asparagus is "cooked" only by the heat of the pasta, so you want to make sure it is crisp tender, not tough, when it is tossed with the macaroni. The brown butter sauce is simple to put together and once the asparagus has been shaved you are ten minutes away from dinner. There is a nutty richness to the butter sauce that I think you will enjoy. The recipe appears below.

Now, I have a special request to make of you. I'm looking for a food joke. The kind that will make folks groan when they hear it. It's time for retaliation. I have for most of my adult life been surrounded by pragmatic people who love the order of numbers and the power of logic. They are wonderful folks, one and all. Let's just say that their humor is sometimes beyond the pale. I was working in the kitchen when the Silver Fox, normally quite circumspect, let loose a belly laugh. He was paging through a book on relativity. "You have to hear this, Mary." Are your ready? Here's the gist of his metaphysical gut buster. A battered turtle crawled in a police station to report he had been mugged by three snails. When ask to be more specific, the turtle said, "It happened so fast, I can't remember." Help! Poor Albert Einstein is rolling in his grave. It may be time for separate vacations.

Directions:1) To make brown butter sauce: Melt butter and salt in a small saucepan set over medium-low heat. Add chopped fresh sage and cook, stirring often, until butter begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in 2 tablespoons heavy cream and remove from the heat.2) To make pasta: Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, until al dente. Drain pasta and return to pot. Gently fold in shaved asparagus.3) To serve: Add brown butter to pasta and asparagus and toss to coat. Fold in cheese and walnuts. Adjust salt if necessary. Serve immediately. Yield: 4 servings.

A duck walks into a bar and asks, "do you have any quackers?" bartender looks at him and says "no". Duck walks out. The next day, Duck walks into the same bar and asks the same bartender, "do you have any quackers?" bartender looks at him and says, "NO" next day, Duck walks in again and asks the bartender "do you have any quackers?" bartender throws his bar rag down in disgust and says, "NO! if you come in here one more time and ask if we have quackers, im going to nail your feet to the floor!! now get the hell out of here!" next day, duck walks in and the bartender sees him and says "what did I tell you!!". Duck looks at him and asks "do you have any nails?" bartender looks puzzled and says "no!?" duck then asks " do you have any quackers?"

I think it's Mark Bittman who points out from time to time that the veggie peeler should be used more to shave things like asparagus and broccoli than to actually remove skins and peels, where lots of nutrients hang out. Great one!

What a simple yet tasty recipe! Asparagus is exploding in the supermarkets right now & I usually don't know how to change things up with it, this is one way I'm going to try! Also, I'm 30 and I still laughed at the joke! It could also be because I'm known to laugh at any and every thing :P

another great idea with shaved asparagus and that brown butter must be delicious too.Here's one that maybe you might have heard of.. chilli and tomato were in a race and tomato was falling far behind. what did chilli say to tomato?"hey, tomato..Ketch-up!Ketch-up!"

HA! I had to laugh when I read the turtle joke. Its like you live on the set of The Big Bang Theory :) I'm afraid I don't have any food jokes of my own but the pickled hearing one certainly made me giggle. Not as much as the turtle one tho :)

I actually snorted at that turtle joke ... help, I think I am a dork!! I wish I had a good food joke for you, but I really enjoyed reading the groaners in the comments. lol! Ah .. but I don't want to forget your lovely pasta - beautiful and simple. And well: Brown. Butter.

I love asparagus, I love pasta, and butter? Yes please :).And Hilary Price is one of my favourite cartoonists who does a lot of word play humour in her comic strip. There are usually a few food related gems :). If you're still looking for a joke (although not a written or oral one) this is a more recent example of one of my food related favourites :)http://www.rhymeswithorange.com/wordpress/strips/Rhymes_with_Orange.20110110_large.gif

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